Saturday, June 14, 2008

The difference between Iowa and New Orleans flood victims

Well Cedar Rapids, Iowa and other areas along the Mississippi River are experiencing a 1-in-500-year flood right now. A great cop and fellow blogger who runs the USA Incognito blog is stuck smack in the middle of it all and I know that she'll appreciate your prayers.

It is a mess there by any measure. Whole towns are underwater, tens of thousands of people are homeless, and Iowa officials are now describing this as the "Iowa Katrina" due to the scope of the devastation.

But one thing separates this catastrophe from the one that we saw in the Gulf, particularly in New Orleans, a few years ago. It's what we're NOT seeing.

--We're not seeing hordes of Iowans sitting on their roofs looking stupid and waiting for someone else to come save them.

--We're not seeing Iowans engaging in massive, wholesale looting and theft of luxury items that they don't even need.

--We're not seeing Iowans shooting at police officers and other rescue personnel.

--We're not seeing Iowans demand new housing for free and and then bitching because it's not good enough.

--We're not seeing Iowans demanding $2,000 debit cards from FEMA and then running off to the casinos or Mexican resorts to spend the dough.

--We're not seeing Iowans demand that the rest of us rebuild their old houses for free.

--We're not seeing Iowans blaming everyone except themselves while they sit around watching everyone else clean up their neighborhoods, and then calling us "racists" when we don't just let them move right in to the most desirable brand-new housing for free.

So while this flooding is a horrible tragedy, it's certainly not a Katrina, if only because Iowans are cut from a different--and better--cloth than all those second-hander socialists and life-long welfare recipients in New Orleans.

Oh yeah...And they don't have any national jokes like Ray Nagin as their elected officials.

27 comments:

I don't know what to say. I feel sorry for you that you think these two incidents are comparable. I feel sorry for the people in Iowa because this is a tragedy. I feel sorry for the people in Louisiana and Mississippi because what they went through was a tragedy as well. Why would you want to compare suffering and make people who lost everything feel like it's their fault in some way? That's asinine.

I think that you misread, LatinTeacher. The comparison is already being made by the media, I disagreed and I've pointed out that the people in Iowa are handling it like real American men and women--they're doing what they have to do and they're not whining like a bunch of spoiled kids and looking for ways to get something for nothing like we saw so many in New Orleans do. I'm proud of the people in Iowa, many of whom spent several long days filling and stacking sandbags and doing whatever they could to prevent of at least mitigate this catastrophe. No one there is accusing the President of blowing up the levees, are they? I stand with the people of Iowa because, unlike much of the population of New Orleans, they are still stand tall themselves. And I think that we all know that Cedar rapids and other affected areas will be back to normal way before New Orleans will, mostly because the people in Iowa aren't sitting around on their asses waiting for someone else to show up and do it all.

Thank you. It is a difficult time for us but we are coming together as a city. The support we have is incredible. We will survive and we will overcome. Plans are already being discussed for how to get downtown back up and running as soon as possible when the flood waters reside. The call goes out to the public for the need of sandbaggers to show up at a certain area and anywhere between 600-1000 people will show up in less than an hour's time! That is the kind of people this city is made up of! I may not like living in Iowa but I can say this - the people that live here are resilient and know what it is like to be brothers & sisters when tragedy strikes. We will rebuild. We will come back from this.

So you are comparing the pace of a recovery which hasn't happened yet? I know it's not much, but what happened in New Orleans really doesn't have a comparison to anything else - people were told they didn't need flood insurance, people were told they were "protected" by levees. Being told those kinds of things makes you feel secure. But it turns out that these were not true. With all the assurances, why would or even could anyone expected to be prepared for that? Not to mention the scale of destruction - thousands of square miles. People may need some help getting back on their feet.

I am sure that FEMA and the National Guard and other groups are in Iowa helping. That's a good thing. I am sure it won't take days for people to get help and that insurance will kick in right away.

I hope that Iowans get everything back together as soon as they can. I just hope that New Orleans does, too.

Shame on you for using the Iowa floods to stir hatred for the general New Orleans population.

If you really want to comment intelligently- without stirring hatred- then call for a better internal American infrastructure-everywhere- rather than just parroting the mainstream media.

Many elderly and children lost their homes, friends, and lives in the Levee break after katrina passed. The Army Corps of Engineers built the levees that were supposed to protect them.

Look beyond what you see in the media. Come visit the New Orleans, LA and MS area. See it with your own eyes. Meet the people of all ages who went through it all and hear their stories from them...They stood and still stand tall as Americans and many serve in Iraq then and now.

You are insulting your fellow Americans when you make general comments like that. There is a big difference from the opportunistic criminals that you saw on the news during Katrina coverage- and the general greater New Orleans population that is still struggling to rebuild their lives. Get a clue and find some compassion in your moral compass.

It's not just New Orleans that was devestated by Hurricane Katrina. I used to live in a small community by the mouth of the river called Plaquemines Parish.98% of my town was destroyed by the hurricane. I did not receive road home nor an sba loan. We had insurance and relocated. We lost everything we owned and we didn't rob or shoot other people. My son was also serving overseas in Iraq (during the Hurricane)with the Louisiana National Guard as the gunner on the humvee.

Anonymous, you're making my point. To begin with, I'm sorry for what you went through, and I'm doubly sorry that Ray Nagin, Kanye west and all the adult babies in New Orleans sucked all of the attention away from you and the majority of other viticims--the ones who didn't scream and cry on the news, demand everything under the sun, and then bitch and moan. You and your neighbors--like the people in Iowa and just about everyplace else in America that's ever had hard times--got up off your butts and rebuilt your lives. You're what America is all about, not the losers in New Orleans who are still yelling "gimme" three years on.

Thanks for posting the TRUTH about Louisiana. I am from the suburbs right outside of New Orleans and I can tell you EVERYTHING you said is the truth and is STILL going on. My home flooded and we DID have insurance despite the fact that our insurance agent told us we didn't need flood insurance when we purchased it in 1994. I just want to pass this on to ALL Louisiana residents that may read this, We LIVE IN A BOWL YOU BACKWOODS IDIOTS! Pay for the insurance. We did! I too am SICK of these people that made off like bandits and got so much money that they were able to pay off and also fix their houses through a generous handout from the nations taxpayers, including ME! I can inform you that the majority of New Orleans residents are ungrateful, greedy people. The poor here EXPECT the government handouts and many are living in nice homes at the taxpayers expense. Good luck to the people of Iwoa and I wish all well.

The floodwaters are not even drained in Iowa and you are posting all these post-mortems. It appears your are being very opportunistic in your rants ( I mean blog).I am a life long native of New Orleans, and lost my house along with everything else Katrina. Thank God I still have my family alive, and I was able to start my life over again- just outside of New Orleans but still in the Metro area.What has happened in New Orleans is much more complicated that the "generalizations" you posted in your original comment. Much of what you say is very true, and those actions during Katrina and after were embarassing and digusting. However, this is very indicative of what is wrong in our society as a whole, and the media, as we all know, generally don't want to do any deep dives (no pun intended) into the real stories - they just need to get good footage and sound bites. Showing poor people on roofs and looting makes good footage- and it digusted me- just like it did most of the New Orleans AREA population.This whole Iowa vs New Orleans comparison is not genuine. The REAL Story of Katrina in the end is, in my opinion, not about New Orleans, but about our country and where it is headed as a whole. Our infrastructure is aging and in poor shape, the federal goverment is not ready or equipped to handle such a thing, and people in Iowa realize that flooding and disasters aren't just something that happens to "stupid people who live below sea level"

To the blogger- I totally understand the position you are trying to take, but to label people of New Orleans and LA the way you do is very inappropriate in the sense that you go too far in your generalizations. Many people tend to forget that we too are Americans, just like Iowa, California, New York, and many other great regions. Every area has it's problems. New Orleans problems tend to be very cultural while also mirroring epedemic NATIONAL problems of poverty, laziness, crime, and expectations of handouts. We just got hit with a MEDIA EVENT of two Hurricanes to make us newsworthy for a while.

It would be most inappropriate for me to label the farmers in the mid west (Iowa included) as losers and crybabies during the farming crisis (which still continues). Remember FARM AID and all the media attention regarding the plight of the farmers and such? I don't recall many people from New Orleans piping up to say "screw them" for looking for a goverrment handout or help. What say you ?

Full Disclosure - I am a Replubican. White, WASP. But also, thanks to Katrina, becoming more of a realist not prone to the hype and propaganda produced by any blogger, agency, party, Army Corp of Engineers, or any other. I witnessed first hand the massive failure of local, state, and federal goverments during the time when many people needed them the most. These people were literally holding press conferences praising the job of their underlings while people continued to suffer and die waiting to be rescued- for many days. Right or wrong, help was needed. Does that thought sit well with you ?

It could certainly be said that this poster is much like those he is ranting about. Didn't we all see the "second-hander socialists and life-long welfare recipients in New Orleans" spouting off about how much they had done to help themselves?Don't get me wrong -- I can't stand the people the poster is referring to! However, to belittle the residents of the Gulf Coast, and New Orleans in particular, by making such ridiculous generalizations is absurd. For every person that was featured on CNN during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, you must remember that there were more than 30 responsible, hard-working New Orleanians. (Over 1 million people evacuated the New Orleans area, as they should have, and only 30,000 stayed through the storm to be featured on news broadcasts.)I hate to play the tit-for-tat game, but unfortunately I don't see a better way to counter the false information being spread through this blog.You state:--We're not seeing hordes of Iowans sitting on their roofs looking stupid and waiting for someone else to come save them.Counter:-- The water also didn't rise suddenly in Cedar Rapids -- thank God! In New Orleans, and much worse, the MS Gulf Coast, the water rose so quickly that thousands of people didn't even have time to escape their homes at all. Those who did had to swim to safety, or if they couldn't wait for rescue personnel. Your comment here is ridiculous. The only comment on this situation that is plausible is that the residents should have heeded the local officials’ warnings and evacuated PRIOR to the storm.

You stated:--We're not seeing Iowans engaging in massive, wholesale looting and theft of luxury items that they don't even need.Counter:-- Let me begin by stating that I was appalled by what I saw in New Orleans as well. Hell, I was rooting for the SWAT Teams to just take up high-level vantage points and take aim! If someone comes out of a store with anything other than food, clothing, or medicine then take 'em out. HOWEVER, to compare what was experienced in New Orleans, to what is currently being experienced in IA is not possible. In New Orleans, there was no infrastructure remaining. No telephones, no radio, no police equipment, no roads, no food... Take all of that away in a sudden manner without any communication of what is going on, and even a normally level-headed person will begin to panic. And remember, all of the level-headed people had already left town! (To be fair, there were thousands of the best Americans who stayed in New Orleans through Katrina, but they certainly were not on CNN because they weren’t doing anything news-worthy. Things like pumping someone's heart by hand in a hospital room for 24 hours after the emergency generators ran out of fuel, or patrolling the pitch-black streets at night out-manned and out-gunned.)

You stated:--We're not seeing Iowans shooting at police officers and other rescue personnel.Counter:-- I didn't see that either. I heard the reports of this happening on CNN, but I never actually saw it. If you read the stories written by the thousands of rescuers, they didn't see it either. This has readily been dismissed as untrue rumor. Now, there were certainly cases of looters firing on police officers who tried to regain order, but this is completely different that someone who is stranded firing on rescuers. Still despicable, but in the same regard as any criminal ever firing on a police officer.

You stated:--We're not seeing Iowans demand new housing for free and and then bitching because it's not good enough.Counter:--Unfortunately, this is a sad reality, but it is the exception. Most residents that had to rely on assistance for housing were VERY appreciative for anything received. Historically, you will see this same reality in every major disaster due to the stress endured by those affected.

You stated:--We're not seeing Iowans demanding $2,000 debit cards from FEMA and then running off to the casinos or Mexican resorts to spend the dough.Counter:--NO ONE demanded debit cards. They were offered, and they served their intended purpose for the VAST majority of those who accepted them. Actually, many residents who qualified for them did not accept them. However, there were those who abused the generosity of the rest of the country - both from the New Orleans area AND many other areas of the US. There have been hundreds of cases where people were prosecuted for filing for the emergency assistance who did not even live in the affected areas - people from every state in the country.

You stated:--We're not seeing Iowans demand that the rest of us rebuild their old houses for free.Counter:--I have not met anyone, nor have I seen anyone on television, demanding that someone else rebuild their house for free. I don't think this is fact, but unfortunately if there is one person who feels this way I'm sure that a news crew will find them and share their warped sense of entitlement with the world.

You stated:--We're not seeing Iowans blaming everyone except themselves while they sit around watching everyone else clean up their neighborhoods, and then calling us "racists" when we don't just let them move right in to the most desirable brand-new housing for free.--First off, don't use "we" unless you have actually been to the effected area. From your comments, I can say very assuredly, that you have not volunteered to assist those who cannot help themselves (which there are many), much less even visited the area. Second, you are correct in that there has been an unfortunate cultural shift in America, where most people cannot see their own failures and want to blame everyone else for their problems. This is certainly not limited to the New Orleans area!Third, you will not find a neighborhood being rebuilt solely by people who were not there prior to the storm. There are areas that are receiving a tremendous amount of help, from thousands of volunteers, to rebuild though. Those volunteers have made it possible for many elderly, handicapped, and extremely poor to begin restoring a life for themselves and their families. Those of us in New Orleans, who are working every day to rebuild our lives and the lives of our neighbors, cannot thank these volunteers enough!

I sincerely wish everyone in the Cedar Rapids area strength and endurance. Over the last three years, I have found that those are the most important traits to ensure the prompt recovery of your family's sense of well-being. I also hope that you all have the opportunity to experience the REAL New Orleanians through the numerous volunteer groups from New Orleans that have been traveling to disaster sites to assist those impacted in the ways we know all too well.

***********************************Finally, to those who DO fit the profile suggested by this blogger:

Being from New Orleans and having been working every day since Katrina at both a full-time job during the day, and every evening to personally repair my family's home due to the lack of contractors and money, as well as continuing to uphold my volunteer duties within the community, I take great offense at your worthlessness! I am livid that someone as utterly useless as you has the gall to abuse privileges and kindness shown to you by the government, corporations, and private citizens! I hope that someone forwards your name to officials with FEMA and the IRS and that they in turn seize your home in New Orleans and incarcerate you for illegal use of public funds. If you want someone to take care of you, I am happy to oblige, but it will be behind iron bars.For all of us working our butts off to rebuild our lives, and helping those who truly cannot help themselves, here is a great big F.U.!

First of all, thank you NOLA boy for your post. You said many of the things I was thinking while reading ME's blog.

Me, you make it sound like New Orleans is just sitting around waiting for everyone else to do our work. Thousands of people came back to New Orleans to re-create the city that was before Katrina. Not only are those people working to fix their own city without government help, but many of those same people are helping with the Midwest flooding. Please check out the Columbia Missourian Newspaper's website. There is a story about Volunteers from New Orleans going to HELP IN THE MIDWEST!!! Not only are we trying to help ourselves, but we are still trying to help others. Yes there ARE people who are looking for government handouts, but there are those everywhere you turn not just in N.O. Please, when writing your blogs, don't lump all of the people of New Orleans into one group. There are more of us who are trying to fix things ourselves than those who are not.

Oh, about the comment about people sitting on their roofs in New Orleans. Not only did the flood waters rise up fast, but many of those people had NO WAY OUT before the hurricane. They had no money and no cars. They were stranded during the hurricane with no way to leave.

Yes, I know that some people have been back at work in New Orleans, but that's not what makes the news. What the rest of America sees is a bunch of fat, loud women demanding that the public housing projects be rebuilt and that they be brought back from wherever they're living now and given the keys to brand new, state-of-the-art units. We're seeing people still living in FEMA trailers three years on, having made no real effort to go get new jobs and start paying rent or mortgages on their own places. We're seeing all of those houses still abandoned and neither cleaned up or torn down because no one wants to do the work and every time the city tries to tear them down as nuisances, people start suing. and the constant refrain we hear is "The government failed us, and the government owes us!" Well I don't feel that I, as a taxpayer, OWE anyone anything. I dsn't mind helping those in need in emergencies, but the emergency in New Orleans is over and they need to get back on their own feet like the people in Gulfport, MS and everywhere else outside the city have done. If people from the 9th Ward can not afford to buy a new house in New Orleans, well then they need to go live in Texas or wherever else they can afford to live, or else they need to get better jobs.

Now as for this quote:-----------------------------------Oh, about the comment about people sitting on their roofs in New Orleans. Not only did the flood waters rise up fast, but many of those people had NO WAY OUT before the hurricane. They had no money and no cars. They were stranded during the hurricane with no way to leave. -----------------------------------

I'm reminded of the response from a black female conservative whose name I cannot recall, who said: "If there was free Snoop Dog tickets waiting for them in Lafayette, every one of them would have found a way to get there."

And again, I refer you to the picture of the buses that Nagin abandoned to the storm instead of using them for mandatory evacuations. This storm was seen coming for days and coulda left and shoulda left failed to leave. Acting all surprised when the storm actually hits and the floods come is BS.

I'm not getting into the differences between Iowa and New Orleans. I'm sure there are good people in New Orleans and I know there are bad people in Iowa. I also know there are a lot more good people in Iowa than bad. Being from Iowa (live in Des Moines, raised and college in Iowa City) I am very proud of Iowans for how we came together, it makes me proud to say I'm from Iowa. Iowans stick together and help their neighbors, they don't expect the government to come bail them out. That is how it should be all over the world. When is Kanye West going to start saying that President Bush doesn't like farmers (maybe it should be Toby Keith). We just don't need Bush! We will pull ourselves up by our boot straps, helping the person next to us up and then get it cleaned up TOGETHER!!!

Are you kidding me! Don’t disrepect the over 1800 dead and their living relatives with this crap. Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in US history, both monetarily ($81 billion) and in loss of life.

Katrina caused 53 different levee breaches in greater NOLA submerging eighty percent of the cityThe storm surge also devastated the coasts of MS and AL. It was the deadliest hurricane since the ‘28 Okechobee huricane. Further, after death toll, 705 people remain categorized as missing in Louisiana. The disaster declarations covered 90,000 square miles (233,000 km²) of the United States, an area almost as large as the UK. The hurricane left an estimated three million people without electricity.

Now, I ask you, how many levees are breached in Iowa? How many dead? How many sqare miles are affected? How many are missing or homeless? How many people are without power?

The only comparison between the people of Iowa and New Orleans as well as everyone living in the flood plain of the Mississippi is that all of these people relied on the Army Corps of Engineers to keep their property safe.

The leveies should have never been built in the first place. But, they are and they were built under government supervision by the lowest bidder.

I just returned last night from a 15 hour drive from Cedar Rapids back home to New Orleans. A group of us, "New Orleans Cooks" is the name, left last week to do our best to assist the residents of Cedar Rapids. Throughout the weekend we were stationed at the KC Hall and served over 2000 meals, gutted homes in the community and served as a resource center for flood affected residents.

All of us there knew first hand what losing everything feels like and how bumpy of a road lies ahead for a portion of this community. We were there to lend a helping hand, warm smile, give any advice we could, and do what we do so well, cook some great food. We met so many lovely people and will continue to support them in every way possible as time goes by. Donations were provided by dozens and dozens of local businesses and residents in New Orleans. I could go on and on with my story, but to some of these posters - don't you DARE generalize an entire Metro area and think that we are all as you explained (What the media portrays is far from the true representation of an entire community). Don't you DARE say that we are all looking for handouts here in New Orleans. Don't you DARE try and compare and contrast these two tradegys - what is the point of that. What will you achive in doing so?What you should be doing is stop your ranting, put some gloves on, pick up a shovel and help someone who needs it.

The flooding affected roughly 5000 homes in Cedar Rapids out of a community of 125,000 people. That leaves tens of thousands of residents free to lend a helping hand, I sure hope that you have done your part.

Did Iowa experience a hurricane with 100+ mph winds? Did Iowa experience a storm surge that was 20+ feet high? Did Iowas awaken in the night to find their houses under 8 feet of water, with no warning? You are not a very good American, and you show huge disrepect towards your fellow Americans. Just who do you think you are?

In response to the last whiner--uh, I mean poster--every fool in New Orleans knew for a fact that the hurricane was coming. Where do you get this "we had no warning" crap? Ray Charles could have seen that coming.

Second, even if you were surprised, that doesn't justify the way that many in the Crescent City acted--the looting, the demanding free stuff, etc. You acted like you were the only ones in the history of America to ever have something bad happen to you, and worse, many of you acted as if it was somehow the fault of the rest of us and you took the attitude that we owed you something. Hell, the bus ride to anywhere else and a few MRE's was more than you had a right to expect, much less brand new homes, cash cards, and rent payments that continue to this day for slaps that won't get jobs and pay their own way. The rest of us probably would have been better off if a few more of you had just up and drowned. At least then we would still be paying your bills while you sit around and bitch years after the fact. Get on with your lives and off our backs, you freeloaders.

It wasn't just in Iowa.... all along the mississippi residents came out to sandbag and help out... I was in St. Louis at the time.... It made me proud to know that at least some parts of this country know the value of coming together and pulling yourself up.... We need to hold people accountable for their apathy!... We shouldn't make excuses for it.... We as a nation need to regain a value of initiative and strike at every instance where its lacking.... The two storms gave us a frame of reference... it allows us to see the difference.... Shame on those for defending the disgracceful actions and attitudes in New Orleans!

It is also important to know information about your location's flood risk to have an idea on how much water might get into your place. Info can be avail in floodplain management office or building department. Anyone can be a victim of financial difficulties because of the damages that brought about by flooding.